Passageway Project
2Towns: LAES and Architecture
Cal Poly Project
The Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies program at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) in San Luis Obispo is working with the Downtown Sacramento Partnership to redesign the K Street pedestrian passageway. This project at Cal Poly is called the 2Towns Passageway and is funded by a grant from the Hearst Foundation (2017-2018). Building on an existing partnership between Cal Poly and Downtown Sacramento Partnership, this grant allows for a research and development partnership in which students are provided with a unique, hands-on, and student-lead research experience. Their best concepts will receive immediate deployment and testing in an urban setting, with evaluation and guidance not only from Cal Poly faculty, but from working architects and business leaders in the Sacramento community.
ABout
Six Design Teams
Details about the main designs
The Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies (LAES), Architecture, and Computer Science programs at Cal Poly are working with the Downtown Sacramento Partnership to redesign the K Street pedestrian passageway that connects historical Sacramento with modern Sacramento. The goal of the project is to create a new, inviting space for visitors and locals that fills the pedestrian passageway with interactive light displays celebrating the history and culture of Sacramento. This passageway will also provide a continually changing venue for engaging, family-friendly artworks connected to community festivals, fairs, and markets.
1. Virtual Reality
LAES VR Team is creating a virtual reality (VR) model and walk-through of the K Street pedestrian passageway. The VR simulation is a perfectly scaled match of the space in Sacramento, providing users with a completely accurate and immersive experience of the passageway. Through this model, artists, designers, and contractors can model and evaluate how their interactive systems will appear and react to users when eventually installed in the passageway. There are currently two VR models: the “Current” and “Future”. The Current model shows the tunnel as-is, while the Future model includes the elements the LAES Core Team would like to see in the passageway.
2. Augmented Reality
Using two existing technologies, target images taken from the historical bust paintings and the hopi style murals were able to be converted into 3D animations to be viewed on visitors’ smartphones. These animations add both a historic and engaging aspect to the K Street pedestrian passageway. With a pre-downloaded app, visitors will be able to hold up their Android or iPhone to one of the chosen target images, and watch on their phone screen as these images come alive. This enriched experience allows a modern generation to see the passageway in another dimension.
3. Lighting and Rigging
There will be one rigging structure in the section of the passageway named the “Atrium”. This section spans the length of the historic mural. Using Steel Strut channels and concrete anchors, a rigging structure will be located at the top of the passageway. Motion activated LED lights will be attached to this overhead structure, creating a lighting grid. These lights can be programmed to turn off and on when pedestrians are detected below, illuminating a pathway ahead. Furthermore, the lights can be programmed to display various light colors and patterns to correlate with holidays and local sports teams.
4. accordion paneling
Developed from an earlier concept, the LAES students crafted the structural requirements to build an accordion-style panel. The panels, built using box steel and strong plastic, will provide an additional surface for local artists and advertisements to display images. These images alter as one moves through the passageway— a different image appears depending on which direction the pedestrian walks by. Designed with designed with interchangeability and structural integrity in mind, this paneling system will provide a platform for rotating installments, allowing for variability in the K Street pedestrian passageway’s appearance.
5. The Story Development
The story team aims to celebrate the city of Sacramento and bring people together for a fun, interactive and personal experience. In order to meet these goals, they designed a bidirectional installation that encompasses multiple parts of Sacramento’s history, highlighting ethnic diversity and bringing lost stories to life. When traveling from modern Sacramento to historic Sacramento, story team chose to showcase the impact of the transcontinental railroad on the American people and citizens of Sacramento, as well as identify and celebrate the contributions of underrepresented immigrant populations. In the opposite direction, story team chose to bring the existing artwork and historic information to life in an exhibit-based style. The journey ending in modern Sacramento highlights the diversity and rich cultural history of Sacramento, and allows users to stop at the Historic Figure Timeline and the RCAF L.A.S.E.R.I.U.M. mural to interact with culture and history through the augmented reality (AR) technology that we have developed.
6. Community outreach
The culture that arises from the locals in Sacramento has left its mark and influence seen today. The K-street passageway holds this an example of this truth as two famous painters from the RCAF, or Royal Chicano Air Force, developed an extended mural. The two painters, Esteban Villa and Juanishi Orosco, incorporated a large variety of symbolism and cryptic messages within their drawings.
